Romney's running...

[dazzleman]

An effective northeastern Republican, who is conservative enough to get the nomination, could be very difficult for the Democrats to beat.

Pataki at this point is a total dud.  He's a RINO who is only marginally better than the Democrats, and that's not saying much.  Giuliani will be a hard sell, given that he has been married 3x, publicly cheated on his wife, and is socially liberal beyond the accepted norms for his party.  Plus, he has not held a public office higher than mayor.

If Romney is not too loudly pro-abortion, maybe he could win the nomination.  He is against gay marriage, which will please Republican voters.  Somebody like Romney could be  a good way to expand the Republican base and break the red state-blue state phenomenon that we have seen in the last 2 elections.

It would be interesting to see Romney, or somebody like him, run against a southern Democrat.  That would shake things up a bit.

[dazzleman]

Personally, I like the idea of a Northern Republican in '08...we don't actually need to run a southerner this time around.

But, other than Romney, who is there?

Pataki's a joke...
Rudy won't make the cut...
Tommy Thompson will either be two years into a Senate term or out of politics.
And nobody's heard of Tim Pawlenty.


I don't think we should operate under the assumption that Bredesen's going to get the nomination....

Because A) he won't get it
and B) if he does, he wins (heck, I'm seriously considering voting for him if he gets the nomination) Nothing much interesting there.

I agree with your assessments.

[dazzleman]

An effective northeastern Republican, who is conservative enough to get the nomination, could be very difficult for the Democrats to beat.

An effective southeastern Democrat, who is liberal enough to get the nomination, could be very difficult for the Republicans to beat.

Very true.  Look at Clinton.  Now put a northeastern Republican against a southeastern Democrat, and that would really mix up the current red state-blue state alignment, which would probably be a positive thing.

[dazzleman]

Romney should be more concerned about 2006 than 2008 (as should Pawlenty too for that matter)

You may be right.  I have no idea what his re-election prospects are in Massachusetts.